Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Why is video functionality so impaired that I have to use Chrome to play vids on YouTube and many other sites, including most news sites?

  • 3 replies
  • 7 have this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

charlie1313
charlie1313
more options

I have latest Firefox and have Flash set to ask before playing. It works ok on some sites with vids -- I get an 'allow'? query and vids play after I click 'for now'. But I have to reload most YouTube videos, and some sites either do ask, or do not play even after I click 'allow'. I don't even try to watch vids on news sites any more. So far, every vid that won't play in Firefox plays fine in Chrome -- which however I don't prefer for most purposes. Why still so much dysfunctionality with videos?

I have latest Firefox and have Flash set to ask before playing. It works ok on some sites with vids -- I get an 'allow'? query and vids play after I click 'for now'. But I have to reload most YouTube videos, and some sites either do ask, or do not play even after I click 'allow'. I don't even try to watch vids on news sites any more. So far, every vid that won't play in Firefox plays fine in Chrome -- which however I don't prefer for most purposes. Why still so much dysfunctionality with videos?

All Replies (3)

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
more options

If you are using Ask to Activate and have Flashblock installed, you may be creating that issue. See how it works with Flash set to Always Activate and let Flashblock 'do its thing'.

charlie1313
charlie1313 Question owner
more options

Thanks, that makes sense. However, after setting Flash to 'always' I still have the same problem. Maybe I need to disable Flashblock and try again, when I have a few minutes (I hate having to screw around with my tech -- will put up with poor function rather than having to try to figure it out. I no longer work on my own cars if I can help it either). I have struggled with video play in Firefox ever since using Windows 10. Any other suggestions I might try?

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Your System Details list shows that you have a user.js file in the profile folder to initialize prefs each time Firefox starts. The user.js file will only be present if you or other software has created this file and normally won't be present.

You can check its content with a plain text editor (right-click: "Open with"; do not double-click). The user.js file is read each time Firefox is started and initializes preferences to the value specified in this file, so preferences set via user.js can only be changed temporarily for the current session.

You can delete the user.js file if you didn't create this file yourself.

You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder:

I see that the System Details list shows graphics display related issues.

You can try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

  • Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"

You need to close and restart Firefox after toggling this setting.

You can check if there is an update for your graphics display driver and check for hardware acceleration related issues.